National

Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw, center, speaks to her players after play was stopped due to a power outage during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Louisiana Lafayette on Tuesday in Houston. (Associated Press)

HOUSTON — Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said she would do just about anything for junior forward Brianna Turner.
That includes playing one of the strangest and longest games in college basketball in what was a homecoming for the Irish’s All-America star.
In one of the most bizarre scena ...

CLEVELAND -- Kris Bryant started to smile even before he fielded the ball. And with his throw to first for the final out, the agonizing wait 'til next year was over at last.
No more Billy Goat, no more Bartman, no more black-cat curses.
For a legion of fans who waited a lifetime, fly that W: Your Ch ...

RUSTON — Louisiana Tech running back Jaqwis Dancy has been sidelined for the rest of the 2016 season after being diagnosed
with cancer.
Coach Skip Holtz said Monday that the
19-year-old sophomore from Junction City, Arkansas, was rehabbing an
ankle injury when
he first complained about a lymph ...

INDIANAPOLIS -- The NCAA relocated its men's basketball regional tournament to Greenville, South Carolina, on Friday after withdrawing the event from Greensboro, North Carolina, because of that state's law restricting the rights of LGBT people.
The first and second rounds of the men's tournament wil ...

NEW YORK — A first look at U.S. teens and young children who were infected with Zika suggests the virus typically causes
at worst only a mild illness.
Zika infection during pregnancy can cause severe brain-related birth defects. But the report seems to confirm health officials'
belief that inf ...

CHASKA, Minn. — Add Michael Phelps' name to the list of Americans who were less than amused by teammate Ryan Lochte's
post-competition, early morning drunken antics at the Rio Olympics.
"I did have a talk with him about two days before about not doing anything bad," said Phelps, who retired af ...

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Mets fans can buy a few jerseys featuring names of players in the team's instructional league.
Cespedes jerseys, they're big sellers.
Cone jerseys, available as throwbacks.
Of course, those are for Yoenis Cespedes and
David Cone, and not the instructional leaguers &mdash ...

ORANGE, Calif. — Former NASCAR driver Robby Gordon expressed disbelief Thursday as police investigated the deaths of
his father and stepmother, whose bodies were found inside their Southern California home.
"I'm so sad and I can't believe it," the racing star told reporters near the gated hous ...

Ryan Lochte lost three major sponsors when
swimsuit company Speedo USA, clothing giant Ralph Lauren and skin-care
firm Syneron-Candela
announced in quick succession Monday they were dumping the swimmer
over a drunken incident during the Rio Olympics that he
initially described as an armed robbery.
S ...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Simone Biles closed her Rio Games with more gymnastics gold. Usain Bolt breezed through another sprint as
he makes a run at one final Olympic title in his favorite race.
Bolt easily won a qualifying race
Tuesday in the 200 meters, the first step in his bid for the gold
Thursda ...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Simone Biles felt her right foot slip. Then her left.
As she reached down to steady herself on the balance beam — her first visible misstep during an astonishing Olympics that
includes three gold medals and some of the most boundary pushing gymnastics ever — one th ...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Usain Bolt became the first person to win three straight Olympic 100-meter titles, blowing down the
straightaway in 9.81 seconds for his seventh overall Olympic gold.
American Justin Gatlin, Bolt's closest pursuer over the past four years, finished second, .08 seconds behind. ...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Ryan Lochte and three other American swimmers were robbed at gunpoint early Sunday by thieves posing
as police officers who stopped their taxi and took their money and belongings.
In the latest security incident to hit the Rio de Janeiro Games, Lochte told NBC that one of the ...

RIO DE JANEIRO — Michael Phelps closed out the Rio Olympics in the only way imaginable.
Golden.
Phelps put the United States ahead to stay on the butterfly leg of the 4x100 medley relay and Nathan Adrian finished it off,
giving the most decorated athlete in Olympic history his 23rd career gold ...

INDIANAPOLIS — Marvin Harrison often stood silently in the corner of the Indianapolis Colts' locker room. He didn't need
to utter a word.
The numbers spoke for themselves, and he was content playing the quiet, productive guy in a league full of trash-talking,
flamboyant receivers.
Harrison's l ...

Roger Federer is sitting out the rest of this season, including the Rio de Janeiro Olympics and U.S. Open, to protect his
surgically repaired left knee.
Federer wrote on his Facebook page Tuesday that he needs "more extensive rehabilitation following my knee surgery earlier
this year."
"The doctors ...

LAFAYETTE — New seating and improved concession booths are some of the features of a major renovation underway inside
the Cajundome.
The Advertiser reports the renovation, which started in May, is proceeding on schedule, maybe even
a little ahead of schedule, with an anticipated Dec.1 re-openi ...

STILLWATER, Okla. -- Oklahoma State basketball player Tyrek Coger died after a 40-minute team workout on the football stadium stairs in hot weather, university officials said Friday.
Coger, a 21-year-old forward who had recently transferred to OSU, did not appear to be struggling during Thursday's w ...

South Lake Charles got it right the second time around, avenging Tuesday’s loss to Eastbank Little League with a 10-1 win in the deciding game of the state tournament at the Power Center complex Wednesday.
With the win, SLC advances to the Southwestern Region tournament in Waco, Texas, n ...

NEW YORK -- Quarterback Tom Brady's last best chance to avoid serving a four-game "Deflategate" suspension to start the new season was flatly rejected Wednesday by an appeals court.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued a one-sentence rejection of requests by the National Footbal ...

SAN DIEGO — Giancarlo Stanton wore out Petco Park with a record display of power in the All-Star Home Run Derby on Monday
night, peppering every landmark from the left field corner to center field.
Stanton hit 20 homers in the final round to best defending champion Todd Frazier of the Chicago ...

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green was arrested on a charge of misdemeanor assault and battery
over the weekend near the Michigan State campus, police said Monday.
The alleged incident occurred around 2:30 a.m. Sunday in the city where Green played for the Spartans ...

WARSAW, Poland -- President Barack Obama said Friday that America is "horrified" by a targeted shooting of police officers in Dallas, and he said there is no justification for the violence.
"We still don't know all the facts. What we do know is that there has been a vicious, calculated and despicabl ...

LONDON -- Roger Federer was not about to let this feel-good story spoil his own Wimbledon.
The seven-time champion — perhaps the greatest player of all time — showed little mercy Wednesday against Marcus Willis, a 772nd-ranked British qualifier who had never won a tour-level match until ...

SONOMA, Calif. — Jeff Gordon is open to succeeding Michael Strahan as Kelly Ripa’s new “Live” co-host — so long as he could continue his new job as a NASCAR analyst.
Gordon is calling his final race of the season Sunday for Fox Sports and then will head into the first s ...

Janice Joseph Richard fashioned the crowning achievement of her basketball career after being dealt a potential career-ending blow.
Arguably the lowest point in her life was when she had to step down as the head women’s basketball coach at San Jose State in 2006 because of breast cancer. From ...

OAKMONT, Pa. — Even a rain-soaked Oakmont didn’t keep the U.S. Open from delivering its usual dose of frustration.
Just not the kind anyone expected.
Defending champion Jordan Spieth, who had spent five days preparing on the firm and fiery greens of Oakmont, posed over a wedge into the 1 ...

After last football season, no one can ever say that Jim Hightower never took the St. Thomas More Cougars’ football program to the Superdome.
Of course, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame voting committee recognized before the 2015 season began that the lack of a Superdome appearance wasn&rsquo ...

WASHINGTON -- The slaughter in Florida and an attention-grabbing filibuster in the Senate did little to break the election-year stalemate in Congress over guns Thursday, with both sides unwilling to budge and Republicans standing firm against any new legislation opposed by the Na ...

Soon after the National Baseball Hall of Fame announced that the famous Satchel Paige would in 1971 become the first Negro League player to enter the hallowed halls of Cooperstown, David Malarcher reacted with jubilation.
Malarcher, a Convent native who toiled as a much admired player and manager wh ...

OAKLAND, Calif. — LeBron James had 41 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists, Kyrie Irving also scored 41 points and the Cleveland Cavaliers capitalized on the Warriors playing without suspended star Draymond Green, staving off NBA Finals elimination with a 112-97 victory in Game 5 on Mon ...

DETROIT — Gordie Howe, the
rough-and-tumble Canadian farm boy whose boundless blend of talent and
toughness made him
the NHL's quintessential star during a career that lasted into his
50s, has died. The man forever known as "Mr. Hockey" was
88.
Murray Howe, one of his sons, confirmed the
death ...

LONDON -- Maria Sharapova was suspended Wednesday for two years for failing a drug test, labeled "the sole author of her own misfortune" because she hid regular pre-match use of a newly banned substance from anti-doping authorities and members of her own entourage.
The tennis star said she would app ...

LAFAYETTE — Pitching — starting pitching in particular — wins regional championships, and twice on Championship Monday Arizona had that crucial component clicking while Louisiana-Lafayette did not.
Neither Ragin’ Cajuns starter was able to make it to the third inning on the s ...

LAFAYETTE — Rubber-armed Arizona starter Nathan Bannister kept his team alive for another game, pitching into the eighth inning to lead the Wildcats to a 6-3 win over Louisiana-Lafayette Monday afternoon to force a winner-take-all regional championship contest Monday night.
Bannister, a senior ...

BATON ROUGE — When the Southland Conference finally checked out of the NCAA baseball tournament, it wasn’t pretty.
Southeastern Louisiana was the last team standing, but the Lions staggered out the exit, even having to endure a 1-hour, 37-minute rain delay while getting shellacked 15-0 b ...

LAFAYETTE -- If a player can drive in two runs on a squeeze bunt, things are going your way.
There was no question things were going Louisiana-Lafayette’s way on Sunday at the Lafayette Regional, as the top-seeded Ragin’ Cajuns rolled to the finals with a 10-3 win over No. 2 Arizona.
ULL ...

BATON ROUGE — It took Southeastern Louisiana just over 27 hours to fall into the loser’s bracket of the NCAA tournament’s Baton Rouge regional.
The Lions needed only one inning to make up for it.
Facing elimination Sunday afternoon, Southeastern scored three runs in the first innin ...

LAFAYETTE — Louisiana-Lafayette scored twice in the bottom of the eighth to down the upset-minded men of Princeton 5-3 late Friday night in the opening round of the Lafayette Regional.
Joe Robbins’ one-out RBI triple to score Hunter Kasuls put the Ragin’ Cajuns (42-19) ahead, while ...

Louisiana-Lafayette will be looking to continue a couple of streaks over the next few days when it hosts its an NCAA baseball regional for the third time.
The top-seeded Ragin’ Cajuns (41-19) will host No. 4 Princeton (24-19) at 7 p.m. today. No. 2 Arizona (38-20) plays No. 3 Sam Houston State ...

American cyclist Tejay van Garderen understands the chances that he might contract the Zika virus at the Rio Olympics are minimal, and that precautions could be taken to further reduce the threat.
With a pregnant wife at home, not even the smallest risk was worth it.
Van Garderen withdrew his name f ...

The newest member of Louisiana-Lafayette’s pitching rotation has made the adjustment to college life just fine, with South Beauregard product Nick Lee following in the footsteps of former Barbe Buc Gunner Leger as the Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year.
The duo lead the Ragin’ Caju ...

AUSTIN, Texas — The fight over bathroom
rights for transgender students escalated in Texas on Tuesday as the
state's
lieutenant governor urged schools to defy the Obama administration
while parents of transgender children accused Republican
leaders of stoking intolerance and making their kids ...

PITTSBURGH — Nick Bonino’s main job for the Pittsburgh Penguins is to get to the front of the net and create chaos. The well-bearded forward executed perfectly in his debut in the Stanley Cup Final.
Bonino took a pretty feed from the corner by Kris Letang and beat Martin Jones from in cl ...

OAKLAND, Calif. — Stephen Curry dribbled every which way and drained yet another 3-pointer in the waning moments, pulled his jersey up into his mouth and yelled to the rafters in triumph once more.
A special, record-setting season saved for the defending champs, with a memorable comeback added ...

SAN MARCOS, Texas — Louisiana-Lafayette scored three runs in the eighth inning to come from behind and beat Texas State 4-2 Friday in a winners’ bracket game at the Sun Belt baseball tournament.
The Ragin’ Cajuns made a winner of South Beauregard product Nick Lee. Lee (7-1), the Su ...

Enveloped by uncertainty, Baylor football is facing the possibility of a lost season, NCAA sanctions and the program slipping back toward the losing ways that predated Art Briles' tenure as coach.
The university board of regents began the process of firing Briles on Thursday as it released some of t ...

CLEVELAND — LeBron James scored 23 points then grabbed a seat, Kevin Love scored 25, and the Cleveland Cavaliers unleashed tenacious defense on Toronto to regain control of the Eastern Conference finals with a 116-78 rout of the Raptors in Game 5 on Wednesday night.
Back on their home court fo ...

WASHINGTON -- The House voted on Thursday to ban the display of the Confederate flag on flagpoles at federal veterans' cemeteries.
The 265-159 vote would block descendants and others seeking to commemorate veterans of the Confederate States of America from flying the Confederate Battle&nbs ...

NEW YORK -- As many as 50 class-action lawsuits contesting how the NCAA, major college football conferences or individual schools handled concussions will be filed in the coming months by former players seeking damages for lingering brain injuries and ailments.
The first batch of six lawsuits was fi ...

WASHINGTON -- The White House and Democrats are pressuring congressional Republicans to act on President Barack Obama's demands for money to combat Zika, but even the onset of mosquito season that probably will spread the virus has failed to create a sense of urgency.
Republicans from states at grea ...